THE BLUE CAP JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS ASSOCIATION VOL 9. SEPTEMBER 2002

The Cross and the Sword: Glenageary, Co. Dublin. The family later moved to Marie, Tommy and Charlie Martin in the Mount town House on Lower Mount town Road, Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire). They finally settled in First World War Greenbank, on Carrickbrennan Road, Monkstown. As Part 1. the Martins do not appear on the 1901 census for the house, the family must have moved to Greenbank Mr. Philip Lecane. sometime after April 1901.The house stood on five acres. Member the Royal Dublin Fusiliers Association. It had flower, fruit and vegetable gardens, a rockery, green lawns, tennis courts, a summer house and a Room 10, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, bamboo plantation. There were trees, a paddock, Co. Louth, Ireland. 27th January 1975. cowsheds and an acre or more of rough unused ground, with two ponds. A gardener and under-gardener were Sister Michael Farrell transferred Mother Mary from employed. her chair to her bed in the small hours of the winter morning. She then gently brushed the old woman’s The family’s idyllic life was shattered on St. Patrick’s hair. Mother Mary took Sister Michael’s right hand Day 1907, when Tom Martin was found ‘ lying dead on in both of hers and kissed it. ‘Thank you dear’ she the floor, a revolver in his hand and a bullet through his said. Then she closed her eyes and went to sleep. eye.’ A doctor who lived near Greenbank was first on Sister Michael remained on duty at the bedside. At the scene after the shooting demonstrated that the death 2.40 a.m. Mother Mary showed signs of restlessness. could not have been other than accidental. Whatever the Sister Michael put her hand on Mother Mary’s arm reason for Tom’s death, his wife Mary, pregnant with and asked if she was alright. Did she want anything? their twelfth child, had to carry on, supported by relatives Mother Mary opened her eyes, looked at her, smiled, from her own and her husband’s families. looked up to heaven and peacefully passed away.

Upon her death, the religious order founded by Mother Mary Martin had 450 sisters. Today the Medical Missionaries of Mary come from eighteen different nationalities and work in sixteen countries. Mother Mary had brought much healing, comfort and joy to the world in the years since she had been born Marie Martin in 1892.

Marie, Tommy, and Charlie Martin were among eleven children born to Tom and Mary Martin of Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire), Co. Dublin. The Martin’s were a prosperous Catholic family, Tom Martin being a partner in the firm of T. and C. Martin, Timber Merchants. Tommy was the eldest child. Marie, born on the 25th of April 1892 was the Marie Martin in her VAD Uniform 1915. second born. Charlie, was the fourth child. At the The 1911 census shows Mary Martin as head of the time of the older children’s births, the family lived in household. Marie an five of her brothers were in the Glencar, a substantial red-brick house still standing house on the night of the census, as were Marie Ernst, a on Marlborough Road, governess from Bavaria and five female servants.

1 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS ASSOCIATION VOL.9. SEPTEMBER 2002 As neither Tommy nor Charlie was present, it may be At 4:00 p.m. on the 5th of August 1915, the 5th that they were away at boarding school. The summer Connaught Rangers left Mudros harbour on board the of 1914 saw the Martin family still living at Clacton. At 3:00 a.m. on the 6th of August they landed at Greenbank. In the meantime Marie had been Anzac Cove on the Gallipoli peninsula. With the rest of educated, with her two first cousins, at a finishing the 29th Brigade, they were reinforcements for the school in Bonn, Germany. Tommy had graduated Australian troops who had been fighting there since the from Trinity College, Dublin. Charlie was an 25th of April. Sometime between the landing on the 6th undergraduate at Trinity. Upon the declaration of of August and the 25th of September, Tommy Martin was war, Tommy joined the Connaught Rangers and badly wounded. He was shipped home to Ireland, where Charlie, the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. Having he was hospitalised on Bere Island, Co. Cork. completed a year’s course in First Aid, Hygiene and Home Nursery, with the St. John Ambulance Brigade, In the meantime Charlie Martin, with the rank of Marie applied to serve as a V.A.D. ( Voluntary Aid Lieutenant, was posted to the 6th Battalion, Royal Dublin Detachment i.e. a voluntary nurse). Early in Fusiliers. The battalion was formed at the regimental September 1914, she was interviewed by a selection depot Naas, Co. Kildare in August 1914 and sent to the board. She was sent to Richmond Hospital, Dublin, Curragh, Co. Kildare for training. Presumably, when the where after three months training she was given a 5th Battalion of the Connaught Rangers were moved to certificate stating that she was a trained V.A.D. nurse. the Curragh in January 1915, Charlie was able to spend a certain amount of time with Tommy. Presumably also, With the rank of Lieutenant, Tommy was assigned to they were able to go home to Monkstown on leave. On 5th Battalion of the Connaught Rangers. The the nights between the 27th of April and the 5th of May battalion was formed in Dublin in August 1914. In 1915 inclusive, the 10th (Irish) Division, including September it was sent for training to Kilworth Camp, Tommy and Charlie’s battalions, was transported from Co. Cork as part of 29th Brigade, 10th (Irish) Division. Dublin to Liverpool. The transport ships were escorted In January 1915, the battalion was sent to the by the destroyers HMS Laverock, Legion, Linnet, and Curragh, Co. Kildare. Towards the end of April / Lucifer. From Liverpool the Division was moved to start of May, it was moved to Basingstoke, Basingstoke, Hampshire, where training continued. Hampshire. On the 8th of July 1915, the majority of Again, presumably, Tommy and Charlie would have the battalion moved to Devonport for shipment to the been able to meet each other regularly. The monotony of eastern Mediterranean. But twelve officers, including training was broken on the 28th of May, when King Captain Bryan Cooper (later Major and author of The George V inspected the Irish troops. With the band Tenth (Irish) Division in Gallipoli) and Lieutenant playing the music associated with each particular Tommy Martin and 159 other ranks, mostly from ‘A’ regiment, the soldiers, including the Martin brothers’ Company, took the train to Liverpool. There, at 5.45 battalions marched past the saluting point, allowing each p.m. on the 9th of July they set sail on the Cunard man a clear view of the King. Liner, HMT Mauritania. The Mauritania, sister ship of the recently torpedoed Lusitania, was painted in A few days later, on the 1st of June, the Division was camouflage as an anti-submarine measure. On board inspected by Field-Marshal Lord Kitchener. This time the ship were Lieutenant-General Sir Bryan Mahon, the troops included the 31st Brigade, made up of two commander of the 10th (Irish) Division, his battalions each of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and the headquarters staff, the 30th Brigade headquarters staff, Royal Irish Fusiliers, who had been on musketry training part of the 5th Battalion of the Connaught Rangers, 6th during the inspection by King George V. During and 7th Battalions of the Royal Munster Fusiliers, 6th practice for Kitchener’s visit the Royal Dublin Fusiliers Battalion the Leinster Regiment and detachments of played St Patrick’s Day, instead of their usual marching the 5th Battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment tune. They did this for variety, as all the fusilier (Pioneers). On the 16th of July, the ship docked at battalions, who made up the second two-thirds of the Mudros harbour, Lemnos island in the Mediterranean. parade had the same marching tune i.e. The British Tommy Martin was among the first of the troops of Grenadiers. (Rarely would so many fusilier battalions the 10th (Irish) Division to arrive at Mudros, near to march together). But the fury of the Connaught Rangers, Gallipoli. who shared the right of playing the St Patrick’s Day

2 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS ASSOCIATION VOL.9. SEPTEMBER 2002 march with the Irish Guards alone, was such that the Smyth, Sister Isabelle MMM and the Malta Connection Dubs had to drop the march. No doubt the incident in Healing and Development, Yearbook of the Medical later caused much banter between the older Missionaries of Mary, 2002 edition. Connaught Ranger, Tommy Martin and the younger Taggart, Sister M. Anastasia and Smyth, Sister Isabelle Dublin Fusilier, Charlie Martin. The Medical Missionaries of Mary in Drogheda 1939- 1999 (Drogheda, 1999). On the 9th of July 1915, Charlie’s battalion travelled Westlake, Ray. British Regiments at Gallipoli (London, to Devonport, from where they sailed to the eastern 1996). Mediterranean on the HMT Alaunia. The ship docked War Diary of the 6th Royal Dublin Fusiliers. Public at Gibraltar, Malta and Alexandria, all no doubt Records Office, London. Ref. WO95 / 4296 wonderful sights for the young Charlie. On the 7th of 1911 Census of Kingstown, Co. Dublin. Ref. 94 / 4-B6. August, the battalion was put ashore at ‘C’ Beach, Suvla Bay, a few miles north of Anzac Cove, where In memory of Tom Kettle. Tommy’s battalion had landed the day before. On the th th rd 9 of August, the 6 Dublins being part of the 33 Mr Tom Burke. Infantry Brigade attacked Hill 50 (Chocolate Hill). It Chairman. The Royal Dublin Fusiliers Association. was during this attack that Charlie was wounded. His wounds, however, were not as severe as Tommy’s, as Towards the end of September 1916, Mrs Mary Kettle, he was not shipped home. Lieut. Bob Stanton, another wife of Lieut. Tom Kettle MP, received the following Trinity graduate was killed along with Lieut. Doyle. th telegram from the War Office in London. The telegram At sunset on the 9 of August, following their attack th th was dated the 19 of September 1916. on Chocolate Hill, the 6 Dublins had suffered the following losses. To: Mrs Kettle, University College Dublin.

Officers killed: Lieut. Doyle. Wounded believed nd nd Deeply regret to inform you, Lieut. T.M killed: 2 Lieut. Stanton, 2 Lieut. Mc Garry, Kettle, Dublin Fusiliers, was killed in action Wounded and missing: Major Jennings. Wounded: th nd September 9 . The Army Council express Capt. Luke, Capt. Carroll. Lieut. Martin, 2 Lieut. (1) nd nd their sympathy. Secretary War Office. Carter, 2 Lieut. Mortimer, 2 Lieut. O’Carroll. Missing: Lieut. Clery. Killed, wounded, missing, Her husband was the officer in command of ‘B’ other ranks. 259. Company, 9th Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers. He was (To be continued) killed leading his men in the attack on the village of Ginchy on the evening of September the 9th, 1916. He Sources: My heartfelt thanks to Sister Isabelle Smyth had joined the 9th Dublins at the front as part of a draft of of the Medical Missionaries of Mary. She very kindly officers sent to the battalion on the 19th of July 1916, he shared her knowledge of Marie Martin and her had lasted just fifty-two days with his battalion at the family. Marie’s wartime story will feature in the next front. (2) Tom Kettle’s name is on the Thiepval War part of this article. Memorial in France. The Memorial was designed by Sir Edward Lutyens and built between the years 1928 and Beesly, Patrick Room 40: British Naval Intelligence 1932. It was unveiled by the Prince of Wales in the 1914-18 (London, 1980). presence of the President of France on the 31st of July Cooper, Bryan The Tenth (Irish) Division in 1932. There are approximately 72,000 names on this Gallipoli (Dublin, 1993). memorial built in memory to the missing of the Battle of James, Brigadier E.A. British Regiments 1914-18 the Somme. Each name has one thing in common, their (London, 1993) bodies were never found. Like thousands of other Irish O’Sullivan, Patrick Lusitania: Unravelling the women who were widowed as a result of that terrible Mysteries (Cork, 1998). war, Mary Kettle (nee Sheehy) wanted to know how her Purcell, Mary To Africa with Love: The Biography of husband was killed and where he might be buried. In her Mother Mary Martin (Dublin, 1987). efforts to settle her mind on Tom’s death, she wrote to some of his friends who were fellow officers in the 3 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS ASSOCIATION VOL.9. SEPTEMBER 2002 Dublins. Perhaps the last officer to be with Tom when steel waistcoat that he wore and entered his he died was a young officer named 2nd Lieut. Emmet heart. Well, he only lasted about one minute Dalton. On the 14th of October 1916, Emmet wrote to and he had my crucifix in his hands. He also Mary from The Liverpool Merchants Hospital at said. ‘ This is the 7th anniversary of my Etaples in France where he was recovering from wedding’, (I forget whether 7th or 8th). wounds. Well, Boyd then took all Tom’s papers and 14th of October 1916. things out of his pocket in order to keep them for you, but poor Boyd was blown to atoms Dear Mrs Kettle, in a few minutes so papers and all went. The Welsh Guards carried Mr Kettle’s remains. I presume by now that you are utterly Tom’s death has been a big blow to the disgusted with me for failing to reply to Regiment and I’m afraid that I could not put your letter, but I assure you that if I had in words my feelings on the subject. I remain been in a fit condition I would I have dear madam, yours faithfully. J. Emmet replied before now. I met Mr Kettle for Dalton.’ (3) the first time in France on the 2nd of September 1916 and having known him in A chaplain attached to the Royal Munster Fusiliers also Ireland before we became good friends. wrote to Mary telling her about Tom’s death. He did not He was then 2nd in command of ‘B’ Coy. witness Tom being killed, the information he received Well, between the 2nd and the 5th, I spent about Tom’s death was second hand from a Lance some very pleasant hours with him. (At a Corporal of ‘B’ Coy. 9th Royal Dublins who did see Tom place called Craters) You see, he was falling. The Munsters chaplain wrote. writing a book about the war and the Irish Division, namely the 16th. Well, on Our attack on Ginchy started at 4:00 p.m. the night of the 5th, we marched for three that evening (9th September) and your hours in terrible rain on an awfully husband led his men over. The shelling and uneven road until we came to Trones machine gun fire was terrible and the Wood which is opposite Guillemont. On advance had to be made from shell hole to the morning of the 7th we lost 200 men, 7 shell hole. About fifteen minutes later, while officers at Guillemont by the Bosch shell sheltering with a Lance Cpl. Bormyle of his fire. We returned to Trones Wood and own Company in a shell hole, he was struck Tom took over ‘B’ Company whilst I over the heart by a bullet. The only words he became 2nd in command of ‘A’ Company. said were, ‘Oh my God I’m struck.’ He died Well, during the morning of the 8th, Tom within ten minutes. An officer, M. Boyd, who and I were discussing the losses we had took possession of his papers was killed a sustained when an orderly arrived with a few minutes later. Your husband was buried note for each of us saying . ‘Be in on the spot where he fell. Fr. Burke can readiness, battalion will take up (a x b) furnish you with many details of your position in front of Ginchy tonight at husband which I know nothing of. Corporal twelve midnight.’ I was with Tom when Bomroyle 9th RDF ‘B’ Company is my we advanced to the position that night authority. and the stench of the dead that covered our road was so awful that we both used With deepest sympathy J.A Spiltes C.F. 1st some foot powder on our faces. When we Royal Munster Fusiliers. (4) reached our objective, we dug ourselves in and then at five o’clock p.m. on the 9th Both the Munsters chaplain and Emmet Dalton’s account we attacked Ginchy. I was just behind agree on a couple of points. One, Tom was shot in the Tom when we went over the top. He was chest and two, Tom’s papers were taken by a fellow in a bent position and a bullet got over a officer named Boyd who was also killed in the attack and God love him, blown to ‘atoms’ as Emmet Dalton 4 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS ASSOCIATION VOL.9. SEPTEMBER 2002 recalled. However, there is one slight difference in and legs sticking out of the banks and a lot both accounts of Kettle’s death. The chaplain claimed are never buried at all. Kettle was shot while sheltering in a shell hole. Emmet Dalton claimed Kettle was killed as they went I remember one night before the November over the top. Since the chaplain’s account was second stunt, going out to get identification discs off hand and since Dalton was actually just behind Kettle some of the Dubs who fell in July. They had when they went over, Dalton’s account would seem to retreat at Hawthorn Ridge. I got sick after more credible. getting the third man’s disc…..Don’t’ worry about me, I am all right now. It is harder to When Tom was hit, Dalton carried on with the attack get things than you would think. They can’t and left Tom’s dead body where he fell. According to get things up to us, they are not able to bring Dalton, and indeed the battalion war diary, the Welsh up enough food let alone other things…. It is Guards took over the position the Dublins had gained a common sight to see horses drop down beyond Ginchy that day. Again according to Dalton, dead in the traces. We would be in Berlin the Guards took Tom’s body and presumably buried only the guns could not come up in time. him along with lots of other bodies, where is not That is why we only advance a little at a time known. At 05:00 hr on the 10th of September, only to give the guns time to come up. two officers of the 9th Dublins walked back to the 48th Brigade Headquarters at Carnoy, they were 2nd Lieut. I shall get a home if I go down the line the Emmet Dalton and 2nd Lieut. Hurst. The rest of the next time. The only way is to give the nurses battalion’s officers were dead, wounded or missing. no rest, day or night, keep shouting for drinks or more blankets or anything. They Having found out how her husband died, Mary’s next will get you marked 'Blighty’ to get rid of task was to find out where he was buried. Sadly, not you. (5) many could help her here. Perhaps an indication as to what might have happened to Tom’s body can be The ‘November stunt’ that L/Cpl. Browne mentioned in found from a letter written by a Lance Corporal W. the above letter was the attack on the village of Hamel on th Brown to his mother dated the 10 of March 1917. November the 13th 1916 in which the 10th Dublins took The letter portrays a truly graphical description of the part. See The Blue Cap Vol. 7. 1999 for further details of evil of war. this attack and on the 10th Dublins. Included in L/Cpl Browne’s letter, was Tom Kettle’s poem to his daughter Lance Cpl. W. Browne. 25599. Elizabeth. Written on the sheet of paper were the words, th 10 R.D. Fus. ‘Betty’. ‘In the field before Guillemont. September 4th 63 Royal Naval Division. 1916.’ School of Instruction, Cookery, BEF, France. Lieut. Maurice Healy, a Dublins officer, wrote several letters to Mary Kettle expressing his sadness on the death Dearest Mother, of Tom and on her crusade to find out where he was buried. He tried in vain to look for Tom’s grave. No, I never seen Tom Kettle’s grave, anyway you’d never find it, there are 29th Division Res.Coy. BEF 11th April 1917. hundreds of graveyards all around. It would take you a day to look through one My Dear Mrs Kettle, of them. 10 and 12 being sometimes buried in one grave. Then some of the For three weeks my camp was just east of graves are being constantly blown up and Bernafay Wood and I searched every the remains scattered all over the place, graveyard between my camp and the Ginchy- so you could never tell where to find Longuval-Combles line without ever thinking them, besides, a large number are buried of looking behind me…….Of one thing you along the roadside. You can see the arms need have no fear.

5 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS ASSOCIATION VOL.9. SEPTEMBER 2002 There is not a un-buried body west of Irishmen, blessed in peace and heart-free Ginchy or west of Combles for that from political bitterness, will find Tom’s matter. (6) spirit of their company, eloquent as in life, and a constant guide to the principles for Note: Bernafay Wood lies approximately which he died. (8) 1.5 Km. south-west of Ginchy. Kettle was highly regarded by his fellow officers and the It seems that Mary was given some hope. There is no men who served with him. Fr Felix Burke, serving with th correspondence in the UCD Kettle archive from the 8 Royal Dublin Fusiliers wrote a letter of th anyone telling her about Tom’s grave. However, condolence to Mrs Kettle on the 6 of November 1916. someone must have told her that Tom might be th th buried near the village of Carnoy which is about 8 RDF BEF. 6 November 1916. eleven kilometres south west of Ginchy. She wrote to th Maurice Healy informing him about this possibility A few days after your husband joined the 9 and he in turn wrote back to tell her that he would Dublins in France, he and I became have a look around the Cemetery near Carnoy for aquatinted and from that day ‘till his death Tom’s grave. we became faster friends day by day. He was an ideal officer, always showing the greatest 29th Div HQ BEF 27th November 1917. sympathy for the men under his command. Needless to say the men loved him and we all Dear Mrs Kettle. looked up to him as a towering genius and a store house of information. His many I was delighted to hear your good news accomplishments he never allowed to about Tom’s grave. Major W.B Dunne of interfere with his genial good humour and the 4th Dublins is area Commandant of his ‘Swank’ which so often is bred of Maricourt which is only about two miles attainments vastly inferior to his did not from Carnoy. A number of our battalion strain his honest, noble and truly Irish are buried in the same cemetery, so poor character. He was a brave soldier. He could Tom has company. (7) have been in a safe position at GHQ on the day of the Ginchy battle but no ! he would Whoever gave Mary her ‘good news’ was wrong. fight in the thick of the battle with his boys Maurice Healy, nor Major Dunne, or anybody else and if death came, welcome be God’s will. As for that matter, ever found Tom Kettle’s grave. The a Catholic, we had none better in the Irish Welsh Guards may well have buried Tom when the Division… He never went into the trenches attack on Ginchy died down, but the whereabouts of without first going to confession. About two his grave was lost. His name would end up on the hours before the attack in which he fell, I Thiepval Memorial along with the thousands of other spent half an hour with him and the other missing of the Somme battles. Through the eyes of officers of his Company. I absolved them all. Maurice Healy, the search for Kettle’s grave took on In the advance he was hit through the heart a patriotic similarity to that of another Irish man by a bullet or piece of shrapnel and died named Robert Emmet. In a letter to Mary Kettle, immediately. ‘Twas a glorious life Healy wrote. extinguished before it had worn out. Many mourn his death, but I believe that not even May I refer you to what I consider the you must have felt the blow most of all, feel best of T.D S’s poems addressed to those or have felt as sorry for the death of Tom engaged in a search for Robert Emmet’s Kettle as I his chaplain. I don’t know where grave of which the gist is. ‘Search ye no he is buried or rather the exact spot…… I am more…. For Emmet’s grave is Ireland.’ dear Mrs, yours v truly, Felix Burke C.F. (9) As he proclaimed Emmet still to live, immortal in the hearts of the Irish people, Fr. Burke advised Mrs Kettle to write to the Graves so do I think that a later generation of Registration Commission for information on Tom’s 6 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS ASSOCIATION VOL.9. SEPTEMBER 2002 grave. This she did and finally after some time, on the to me. It was strange to see a bit of cake out 5th of July 1925, the Imperial War Graves here. I am well and under hard conditions…. Commission replied to Mary at her home in No. 3 I also hope that the little girl is well as Mr Belgrave Square, Rathmines, Dublin, stating that they Kettle was telling me about her. It is quite had searched the area west of Bernafay Wood but, cold out here and wet. My brother was ‘the grave of this soldier has not yet been identified.’ gassed but is at home now. I only wish I (10) One man who was particularly very close to him could get a leave so as I would speak to you was his batman, a Belfast man, or rather a Belfast lad privately my-self and let know news aged eighteen, named Robert Bingham. On the 27th concerning your husband…. Thank you for of September 1916, Private Bingham wrote to Mrs the parcel. Robert Bingham ‘B’ Company. Kettle. He wrote to her on headed paper titled, (12) ‘Scottish Churches Huts, France.’ Note: The ‘little girl’ Private Bingham refers to in the Wednesday the 27th of September 1916. above letter was Kettle’s daughter, Elizabeth. It was to her that he wrote the now famous poem ‘To my daughter Dear Madam, Betty, the gift of Love.’ Betty (Dooley) died at a nursing th home in Clontarf, Dublin on the 20 of December 1996 Writing to you in respect of my late and is buried in the family plot in Swords, Co. Dublin. officer which I have been servant to him since he has been out in France, Lieut. Private Bingham returned to Ireland in August 1917 and th T.M.Kettle. He was a brave officer and was posted to the 4 Dublins based at Mullingar was like a father to me as I am myself an Barracks, Co. Westmeath. He too tried to find out where orphan boy at the age of 18. I have the Tom was buried but alas to no avail. only brother serving in France. I was awfully sorry when God called such a When Tom Kettle was killed in September 1916, Lieut. st brave man away. He refused a Staff Maurice Healy was serving with the 1 Battalion of the situation, he wanted to be with his Royal Dublin Fusiliers in another sector of the Somme comrades. He told me just before his front and was therefor not with Kettle when he was nd death that I was going home and that he killed. He too held Kettle in high regard. On the 22 of was staying where he was. With that he September 1916, Healy wrote to Mary Kettle. gave me his watch and I will be willing to Dear Mrs Kettle, forward the watch to you and also his

pass from headquarters when you write to I have just read of Tom’s gallant death with me as I am not certain of the address. My a sorrow not as much for him as for you and address is 9168. Pte R. Bingham, 9th the country that he died for. I never read RDF, B. Coy. British Expeditionary more prepared speeches than those in the Force, France. I will be awaiting your early days of the war in which he proclaimed kind reply. I remain yours sincerely, his faith that this was God’s war and Robert Bingham. (11) Ireland’s war. I think that he and I shared Mrs Kettle kept up some correspondence with the belief that our service was as sacred as Bingham. In many ways, she took him under her wing that of the crusaders of old…. During the and sent him parcels of cake and other little treats. eleven years I knew him we were separated On the 15th of December 1916, Bingham wrote again by all the things that make men bitter in to Mrs Kettle. Ireland and yet I am happy to say we remained good friends. For his work I had Dear Mrs Kettle, the most intense admiration and there was nobody who as well expressed the voice of I received both your welcome letter and young Ireland….Tragedy follows tragedy in parcel and indeed I must thank you very your family and grant he may bring Eugene much for the parcel as it was quite a treat safely home to you. As you know he is my 7 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS ASSOCIATION VOL.9. SEPTEMBER 2002 best in good and evil days and he makes The ‘Eugene’ which Maurice Healy refers to in the life possible for us all out here…. (13) above letter was Mary’s brother, Eugene Sheehy. He too was an officer in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. In October The tragedy following tragedy that Healy refers to in 1917, Healy wrote to Mary Kettle about his relationship the above letter is that of the killing of Mary’s with Kettle. In his letter he also makes a swipe at brother in law, Francis Sheehy Skeffington who, in apocalyptical Irish men who one can only surmise as 1903, married Hanna Sheehy, Mary’s sister. Francis being members of Sinn Fein. Sheehy Skeffington was a pacifist, he detested war of any sort. He was editor of The Irish Citizen. On 29th Div. HQ.BEF. 21st October 1917. Easter Monday 1916, Francis Sheehy-Skeffington had risked his life, crossing a square under fire, to aid a Dear Mrs Kettle, wounded British officer during the Rising. That day and the next he spent hours dissuading looters and For his genius I always had the most called a meeting to organise a civic police force. His profound admiration; I never knew him well wife, Hanna, spent some time with him on Tuesday enough to have him count me amongst his afternoon and then went home to their little son friends, though I would have been very proud Owen, never dreaming she would not see her husband to find myself so numbered. But he so nearly again. He was arrested that evening at Portobello expressed all my own unattained ideals, Bridge and taken to the nearby barracks where he was more especially about our poor country, that held without charge. Towards midnight, Captain John I always felt the barriers between us were Bowen-Colthurst of the 3rd Royal Irish Rifles, setting only the hedges of two parallel roads. If we out with a raiding party, took the bound prisoner with had nothing else in common, we had the him as hostage. When the raiders shot an unarmed desire, foreign to Irish politics, that all youth, Sheehy-Skeffington protested but Bowen– honest men should express their views Colthurst told him to say his prayers or he would be fearlessly and not bare malice because they next. Shortly before ten o’clock the following disagree. morning, Bowen-Colthurst ordered Sheehy- Skeffington and two editors, Dickson and McIntyre, I regret to learn that Colum wrote who had been taken during the raid, to be brought out ungraciously of Tom’s death; for I like from their cells. As Sheehy-Skeffington walked Colum. But all these apocalyptical Irishmen across the prison yard he was shot in the back without are the same - I so often think for nowhere warning. The two editors were killed in a similar way out of the apocalypse is to be found the and when it was noticed that Sheehy-Skeffington was unattainable Ireland for which they propose still alive, Bowen-Colthurst gave the order to finish to wait. They have no politics other than the him off. His body was buried in quick-lime on the hatred of England. Liberty? Yes: but let Wednesday night. (14) When this was going on, Kettle liberty perish, provided England is had spent the weekend with his family and knew humiliated. The burning of Drogheda in nothing of what had happened. For this outrageous Cromwell’s time weighs more with the act of madness, Captain John Bowen-Colthurst was great-to-the-nth grandsons of the people who placed under arrest and tried for murder. His trial were not burned, than the burning of Louvein started on the 6th of June 1916 at Richmond Barracks. which might be avenged. And under the He was found guilty but insane and placed in a mental standard of these honest fools, all the institution and detained at His Majesty’s pleasure cowards take refuge from their duty. (15) which wasn’t very long. Two years later, he was freed on pension and emigrated to Canada. He died in After the war, Mary Kettle ran a campaign to gain Canada in 1965. His younger brother Capt. R Mc G recognition for the Irish veterans of the Great War. She Bowen-Colthurst served with the Leinster Regiment was instrumental in setting up an Irish Nationalist and was killed on the 15th of March 1915. His name Veterans Association. is on a memorial plaque in St. John the Evangelist nd Church of Ireland, Tonglagee Road, Dublin. As previously mentioned, Mary’s brother was 2 Lieut. Eugene Sheehy, a Dublin Fusilier and ex-Belvedere 8 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS ASSOCIATION VOL.9. SEPTEMBER 2002 College boy. In 1910, Eugene was called to the Bar. Samuel T. Boyd from Dublin. William was twenty nine Their father was a Nationalist Member of Parliament. years of age when he died and he too is mentioned Maurice Healy was a barrister too whose uncle was alongside Tom Kettle on the Thiepval Memorial, Pier the veteran Nationalist MP for Cork, Tim Healy, who and Face 16C. Emmet Dalton won the Military Cross on held the office of Governor General, i.e. the King’s that terrible day at Ginchy in September 1916. When the representative in the Irish Free State. This position war ended he fought with Michael Collins against the was set up as part of the Treaty between Britain and British army in the Irish War of Independence. He later Ireland following the War of Independence. After the became Director of Munitions and Training in the Irish Great War, both Sheehy and Healy returned to Ireland Free State Army. He saw no conflict of principles in and resumed their legal practice. Sheehy became a fighting with the British for Ireland in the Great War and senior officer in the Irish Free State Army and later a against the British for Ireland after the Great War. district Justice. Healy wrote several books such as, ‘The Old Munster Circuit’ and, being an expert on Soon after Tom Kettle’s death, a committee comprising wines wrote, ‘Stay me with Flagons’. (16) Both of his friends raised money to have a bust of him cast. It Maurice Healy and Eugene Sheehy knew each other was completed in 1921 and the committee planned to from their days at Belvedere College in Dublin. place the bust in St. Stephen’s Green in Dublin. Its Healy was active in the recruiting campaign of 1915 placement was held up by the disturbed political and according to Eugene Sheehy, ‘resembled his situation in Ireland and a lengthy strike at the quarry famous uncle in that he never failed to raise a row where the stone came from in Stradbally, Co. Laois. In when he considered that he or others were unfairly March 1927, a date was set for the bust to be officially treated.’ (17) Both men were Nationalists and unveiled but the Commissioners of Public Works according to Sheehy, ‘The War Office evidently did intervened and objected to the use of the words Killed not approve of Irish Nationalists as officers.’ He in France being used on the inscription. They also discovered, ‘ that as long as my application was objected to the words in the last three lines of Kettle’s sponsored by Mr. Devlin, MP, or Mr. T.P. O’Connor, famous sonnet: Died not for flag nor King, nor Emperor MP, it achieved no success other than a futile journey / But for a dream born in a herdsman’s shed / And for to Reigate in Surrey to interview a Major of the the secret scripture of the poor. However in the end, the London Irish Rifles. It was not until I met Mr. Commissioners withdrew their objection to the later Maurice Healy in Dublin in March 1915 that I quotation, but the words, Killed in France was replace received the hint that political sponsorship was a by Killed at Ginchy, 9th September 1916 with no hindrance rather than a help.’ (18) reference as to where Ginchy was or what Tom Kettle was doing there. (19) Had Kettle’s grave been found, Kettle’s batman, 53919 Private Robert Bingham from Maurice Healy would have placed, an Irish Cairn above Belfast died at home on the 4th of October 1919. He is him with a Celtic Cross over all. (20) buried in Belfast City Cemetery, grave reference J1.6. He had been transferred from the Dublins to the In 1909, Tom Kettle was appointed Professor of National King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. He was just Economics at University College Dublin. On the 29th of twenty one years of age when he died. Lance September 1916, Professor William A Scott of the Corporal William Patrick Brown, the man who wrote School of Architecture at UCD in Earlsfort Terrace, to his mother about the horrible state of the dead wrote to Mrs Kettle the following letter. Dublin Fusiliers after their assault on the Hawthorn Ridge in July 1916, died of wounds on the 15th of I read in the Irish Times of yesterday – there May 1917. He was twenty two years of age and came is a suggestion to erect a monument to him from No. 14 Buckingham Terrace, Buckingham and I hope this may be erected. I shall be Street in Dublin. He is buried at Etaples Military greatly disappointed if I am not permitted to Cemetery. Many of the men who are buried in this act as Honorary designer for this memorial. cemetery came from the hospital used during the war I think a mural tablet might be placed in the in Etaples on the French coast. 2nd Lieut. William New University College to record his Hatchell Boyd, the young man blown to bits who had connection with the University. This would Tom Kettle’s papers was the son of the Reverend be only a fitting tribute to his memory. (21)

9 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS ASSOCIATION VOL.9. SEPTEMBER 2002 Professor Scott’s ambitions to erect a memorial tablet (Note: The papers of Francis and Hanna Sheehy- to Tom Kettle in UCD never happened. Outside the Skeffington are available to the public at the National UCD engineering students coffee room at the Belfield Library of Ireland in Dublin. My thanks to Mr Jimmy campus today, there is a tablet on the wall which Taylor author of ‘The 1st Royal Irish Rifles in the Great reads. War’ and Mr Brian Moroney for the information on Bowen-Colthurst) In memory of Lieut. Frank Flood, Dublin Brigade Old IRA, Engineering Student at Sgt. John Willis UCD. Executed for treason at Mountjoy th th 7 Royal Dublin Fusiliers. Jail , Dublin 14 March 1921. Donated by his brother Alfred Flood 1994. Dr James H Willis MA MB FRCP.

Member of The Royal Dublin Fusiliers Association. Wouldn’t it be nice if University College Dublin carried out Professor Scott’s ambitions and erected a My father, John Robert Patrick Willis, born on the 12th memorial to one of its long forgotten and esteemed of June 1898,was one of five brothers. He joined the member of staff, Lieut. Tom Kettle, essayist, poet, Royal Dublin Fusiliers in 1914 at the outbreak of the professor of economics, Member of Parliament, war. His elder brother Philip also joined the Dubs. Why patriot and a Dublin Fusilier. did he join the army ? To get away from Dublin and get

regular meals was the reason that he always gave. Before References. the war, he and his brothers had enjoyed a life of middle

class affluence until they were deserted by their father 1. University College Dublin,. Archive of Tom who was a bullying psychopath and disloyal husband. Kettle. Reference LA34 / 424. My grandmother, i.e. my father’s mother, had been quite 2. Battalion War Diary of the 9th Royal Dublin well off and lived in a comfortable part of Dublin; at a Fusiliers. Public Records Office, London. time of relative affluence, their next door neighbour was Reference WO95/1974. the Countess Markieviecz. However, the carry on of my 3. UCD Tom Kettle Archive. LA34 / 417.1 grandfather had put my grandmother through a fortune 4. Ibid. LA34 / 418.1 and hard times followed as a consequence. So my father 5. Ibid. LA34 / 420 and his bother joined the army. 6. Ibid. LA34 / 413.2

7. Ibid. LA34 / 413.4 When he first joined the Dublins, he was impressed by 8. Ibid. LA34 / 413.2 the old-timers who had served with the battalion in India 9. Ibid. LA34 / 419.1 and South Africa. These old-timers regarded the 1914- 10. Ibid. LA34 / 423 1918 war as a grubby, rather disreputable affair, in 11. Ibid. LA34 / 414.1 contrast with the scenic wonders of South Africa. He 12. Ibid. LA34 / 414.6 recalled hearing men saying Indian or Irdu words such as 13. Ibid. LA34 / 413.1 bundook (rifle) koi hai (come here) juldi (quickly) He 14. Lyons. J.B. The Enigma of Tom Kettle. Glendale used to say that as far as these old chaps were concerned, Press. Dublin. 1983. Pp. 284-285. the regiment offered a home with accommodation, wages 15. UCD Tom Kettle Archive. LA34 / 413.4 and a regular existence. When he was about to be de- 16. Healy. M. The Old Munster Circuit. M. Joseph. mobbed, a veteran said to him. ‘ young fella, you don’t London. 1939. mean to say you’re leaving the regiment.’ The idea that 17. Sheehy. E. May it please the Court. Fallon Ltd. anyone wanted to leave was, according to some of these Dublin . 1951 Pp. 87. men, unthinkable. 18. Ibid. pp. 86.

19. Jeffrey. K. The Great War in Modern Irish He was a signaller in the Dublins and this led him, after Memory. Pp. 149. Article taken from Men, the war, to train as a telegraphist in the Marconi Women and War. Lilliput Press. Dublin. 1993. company. He became a ship’s wireless operator and 20. UCD Tom Kettle Archive. LA34 / 421. ultimately a communications engineer in the Cable and 21. Ibid. LA34 / 425.4 Wireless Company. He volunteered for service in World 10 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS ASSOCIATION VOL.9. SEPTEMBER 2002 War Two and rose to the rank of Squadron Leader in have to fight facisim sooner or later. Indeed when the RAF.. He was involved in the development of Mosley and his thugs tried to disrupt the celebrations of Radar during that war. During the war my father had the Tolpuddle Martyrs, my father was out there in the served in Gallipoli and Salonika. He nearly died in streets ready to have a go at these gentlemen. The Salonika following an attack of bacillary enteritis. Tolpuddle Martyrs were a group of 19th Century Like a lot of soldiers, the Dubs were strong on irony. I labourers who tried to set up a trade union movement in recall him talking about such irony, for example on the village of Tolpuddle in Dorset. For their ideals they gaining ground, someone would say, ‘I hear were were sentenced to death. Later this sentence was dropped gaining ground.’ The reply would be, ‘Yes, on the and they were transported to Australia. Mosley and his soles of our feet.’ He thought me a little doggerel one mob tried to disrupt the commemorations of these early of his mates had written. trade unionists claiming they were the forerunners of communism. Twas the 23rd of April boys and we were lookin’ rather thin. Sometime in the mid 1950’s my father retired from When the order came along the line for to get Cable and Wireless. He and my mother lived in Bermuda ourselves dug in. at the time. The week before he left he stumbled on a bit To get ourselves dug in me boys of good fortune and won the Treble Chance in Vernon’s And it was an awful sight Pools, a prize of £75,000. God knows what that would be For you couldn’t hold up your head be day. in today’s money. He had used the same permutation Nor the half of your head be night. every week. Need I add that it was based on his old army Father said the Dublins always hated jam and for number with the Dublins. some odd reason the Wiltshire Regiment seemed to be on their list of pet hatreds as well. In 1960, my father and mother moved back to Ireland and lived near the Curragh in Co. Kildare and later He referred to soldiers who were sometimes less moved to Greystones in Co. Wicklow. He used to attend enthusiastic than the Dubs as, ‘Come outa the wet re-unions of the regiment in Dublin. I think that one of soldiers.’ In 1918 he was with the regiment the most interesting facets of my father’s character and somewhere in England at a seaside resort. In a local abilities was, that despite his lack of formal education, he theatre there was a patriotic play in which the Irish was a well read and learned man, he was one of the first were depicted as traitorous cowards. Word got round people in England to obtain a copy of Ulysses. My the battalion and one night the front rows of the father’s brother Philip, also a Dub to survive the war, theatre were filled with Dublin Fusiliers. When a became a radio engineer. Phil worked for Pathe News in particularly offensive line was uttered from above the France in the early days of sound movies. He was a great footlights, the senior officer who was sitting in the friend of Marcel Pagnol and ‘did’ the sound for his most front row, stood up and said, ‘That’s a bloody lie.’ celebrated movies – La femme du boulanger, Mauris, And all hell broke loose in the theatre. etc. My father died in 1969, my mother died several months before him. They are both buried in Falconwood My father’s main recollections of the war that he Cemetery in London. And may they rest in peace. cared to discuss were the dirt, lice and cold. Also boredom and above all the shared hatred of the The 21st of January 1919. An Historic Day. General Staff and the senior officer class whose out- dated ineptitude he still cursed in 1940 when General Dr. Patrick Mc Carthy. Ironside – a notable buffoon – suggested that the Correspondence Secretary Military History Society of Duke of Gloucesters should lead the defence of the Ireland and Member of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers country (England) against the Panzer Division of the Association. Wermacht.

The 21st of January of January 1919 is an important date During the late 1930’s when the English middle in Irish history. Shortly after 10:00 am that morning, classes were admiring Hitler, my father was regarded some Irish Volunteers led by Sean Treacy and Dan Breen as a war monger because he could see that we would held up a cart carrying geliginite to the quarry at 11 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS ASSOCIATION VOL.9. SEPTEMBER 2002 Soloheadbeg, near Tipperary town. In the ensuing at the scene below; a raised rostrum, tables affray, two RIC men were shot dead. By common for the clerks, and, before the speakers dais, consent, these were the opening shots of the War of carefully arranged benches offering place for Independence. That afternoon the Sinn Fein MPs all one hundred and three Irish members (they would soon adopt the Irish title Teachta Dala, returned at the General Election of the TD) who had been elected in the historic General previous December. Election of 1918, assembled for the first time at the Mansion House in Dublin. The RTE journalist, Mr Neither Mr Brian Farrell nor any other historian has ever Brian Farrell, in a Thomas Davis lecture, captured alluded to the fact that the inaugural meeting of the Dail well the sense of excitement and history in the was proceeded by another important function in the making of that day (1). Mansion House, one that equally caught the imagination of the ordinary Dubliner. At 12:30 p.m. more than 400 Seventy-five years ago a small group of officers and men of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, former deputies assembled at the Mansion House prisoners of war, sat down for a special lunch to in Dublin. They were there to make welcome them home after their repatriation from history and they knew it. The long- Germany. Some had been prisoners for more than four pursued dream of an independent Irish years, men of the 2nd battalion who were captured during parliament was at last to be realised in the retreat from Mons in late August 1914. (2) Others practice. The first meeting of the first Dail had been captured during the German offensive of March (Irish Parliament) was to lay the firm 1918. Their experience must have bee very similar to constitutional basis of the new Irish state. those recorded by Sergeant Charles Mills of the Royal It would provide, through the troubled Munster Fusiliers. Sgt. Mills was taken prisoner by the infancy of that state, a forum for Germans at Epehy in March 1918. He kept a diary of his deliberation and a visible source of captivity and it was published in the journal of the legitimate authority. It’s unlikely that Military History Society of Ireland, The Irish Sword, in many of those jostling for position in 1983. (3) st Dublin on that 21 of January 1919 were fully aware of that significance. Even though the Armistice came into effect on the 11th of November, it was late December or early January 1919 Outside in Dawson Street they pressed before the prisoners could leave their camps in Germany. right across the road, climbed the lamp- Thus the dinner in the Mansion House was the first posts for a glimpse of the arriving leaders. opportunity that the people of Dublin had to welcome Young Volunteers preserved a good- home their heroes. Contemporary newspapers report that, natured order and a detachment of Dublin ‘many sympathisers found themselves accidentally mixed Metropolitan Police managed to keep the up in the Sinn Fein gathering as they cheered and waved trams running. Disappointed visitors who handkerchiefs to the men striding proudly by.’ (4) Some had come all the way to town sought entry good-humoured banter was recorded while all cheered as in vain. more than 500 wounded members of the regiment were brought from various city hospitals to join the lunch. Those in the know, with official tickets After the lunch, the men formed up and marched to the from their TDs, had queued up with Theatre Royal for a concert, again without any rancour invited guests and packed into the Round with the assembled Sinn Feiners. Guests of honour at Room. Space was found for sixty-nine both the lunch and the concert was Fr. Crotty, O.P., who journalists from home and overseas had been chaplain in the prisoner-of-war camps at papers; many of them commented on the Limburg and Giessen. respectability of those crushed into this technically illegal assembly. The great Through the good offices of Mr Liam Leeson and Mr circular hall of the Mansion House was Sean Ward, the Royal Dublin Fusiliers Association has dense. Contemporary photographs show acquired programme of this event. It contains messages the ground floor and gallery thronged and, from the Lord Lieutenant, the Duke of Connaught, the mainly men, some of them priests, gazing 12 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS ASSOCIATION VOL.9. SEPTEMBER 2002 Earl of Meath and Major General Cooper, C.B., Dublin Fusiliers Association to sing at The Last Post Colonel, Royal Dublin Fusiliers, and the musical Ceremony at the Menin Gate memorial in Ieper (Ypres), content of the concert in the Theatre Royal. The Flanders. I was a member of the group of RDF Assoc. programme also lists the various committees of the who had travelled to Flanders. On the evening of the 7th ‘Dubs’, eg Women’s Branch, Dublin Committee, of September, four regimental associations were present RDF Prisoners of War, Co. Kildare etc. This is truly a at the Menin gate, two Belgian Regiments, The Ex- valuable addition to the Associations archive and we POW’s Assoc. and The RDF Assoc. There was roughly are indebted to Mr Leeson (whose father served in the up to 1,000 peopled who gathered under the famous South Irish Horse) and to Mr Ward for the donation. Arch that evening. The ceremony commenced with a call to attention by the buglers who are mainly men from the References. local Fire Brigade. This was followed by the lowering of the Regimental Standards and then a minute silence was 1. Farrell. B. The Creation of the Dail. Blackwater observed. Normally at this point, a piper would play a Press. Dublin. 1994. lament, however the RDF Assoc. had obtained 2. Wylly. C.B. Col. H.C. Crown and Company. Vol. permission from the Last Post Committee to have a II. 1911-1922. Gale and Poulden. Aldershot. singer sing a song of remembrance. 1923. Pp. 19. 3. O’hUanachain. M. A few notes on German I stepped forward to the microphone and announced that Treatment – the diary of Sergeant Charles Mills. the song I was about to sing was to the memory of the Royal Munster Fusilier. 1918. The Irish Sword thousands of Irish men from the Island of Ireland who No. 60. Summer.1983.Pp 159. never came home. I sang Thomas Morre’s beautiful ‘Oft 4. The Irish Independent; Irish Times; 22nd January in the stilly night.’ It was an incredibly moving 1919. experience. The ceremony then ended with the Buglers playing Reveille. My daughter, Ciara and her family had, unknown to me, travelled from Brussels. She told me later there were many in the crowd who had tears in their eyes as I sang. To have sung at the Menin Gate at the Last Post ceremony was not only a unique occasion for me but the highest honour I had achieved in all my years of singing.

When I remember all the friends so linked together, I’ve seen around me fall, like leaves in wintry weather. Thus in the stilly night, ‘ere slumber’s chain hath bound Music. me, The Greatest Honour. Sad memory brings the light, of other days around me.

Mr Des Byrne. Member The Royal Dublin Fusiliers Association.

On the 7th of September 2002, I felt privileged and honoured when asked by the Committee of the Royal

13 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS ASSOCIATION VOL.9. SEPTEMBER 2002

Programme of the Central Advisory Committee Royal Dublin Fusiliers on Tuesday afternoon the 21st of January 1919.

14 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS ASSOCIATION VOL.9. SEPTEMBER 2002 A time to remember.

Mrs Marjorie Quarton. Member of The Royal Dublin Fusiliers Association

‘Did you enjoy your holiday?’ my friends ask. It’s hard to say. The weekend trip in September for members of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers Association to Flanders was certainly enjoyable, in that the company was great, the hotels comfortable and the food as good as it was ample. I felt emotionally drained at times. On Friday, after we had driven to Mons, we visited the cemetery where the first and the last soldiers to be killed in World War 1 are buried just yards apart. We heard that Germany was really beaten in 1914, having failed in her drive west. The frightful carnage of the next three years might have been avoided. An average of 5,000 soldiers killed a day for the duration of the war. The local Mayor, whose Town Hall is a vast castle, rebuilt like everything else around here, welcomed us. Saturday was a tough day for me, but it was strange to stand where my father had re-encountered the young officer he had liked so much when they fraternised during the truce of Mrs Marjorie Quarton at Mouse Trap Farm th Christmas 1914. Here at Mousetrap Farm he was on Saturday the 7 of September 2002. gassed in 1915, but not badly. I was wrong in saying On Sunday, we saw some of the craters still there he was left for dead here; it was at Vampire Farm after the mining of the Messines Ridge. We saw near Ypres. I said the enclosed prayer, and found it Willie Redmond’s grave and visited the Island of hard not to cry. Local schoolchildren sang for us and Ireland Peace Park. I would urge anyone who has the the schoolmaster has sent me photos, for which I chance to see this. Nearby the German cemetery at thank him. That day we saw the grave of the youngest Langemarck was almost unbearably poignant. We battle casualty, Private John Condon, aged saw the mass grave where 24,917 German student fourteen.We visited two good but gruesome soldiers lie in a mass grave. On Monday, we visited museums, plus the preserved trenches at the Hooge Fr Willie Doyle’s grave, passing the spot where my Crater Museum. These brought it home to us what father’s company was reduced from sixty three to life was like in the trenches, especially as we two within minutes and where he was gassed again, encountered lashing rain to help our imaginations. losing a lung. So many thanks to Tom, Nick, Seamus,

Paddy and Oliver and all those who made our That evening we attended the Last Post ceremony at weekend a time to remember. the Menin Gate. Although drenched before we arrived, we would all gladly have attended it again. One of our members, Mr Des Byrne, sang ‘Oft in the Stilly Night’ most movingly. It was a brilliant choice My father. and all who heard Des were moved by his singing. It had never happened at the Menin Gate before that My father, Standish Smithwick, was born in Ireland anyone sang a song in remembrance. Before he began in 1878 and was a regular soldier. He served in the 1st to sing, he informed the attendance of nearly 1,000 Battalion. Royal Dublin Fusiliers through the Boer people from all over the world, that he dedicated his War, in Egypt, India and elsewhere, and re-founded song to the memory of all those Irish men and their the Camel Corps in the Sudan. When WW1 broke families who never came home. out, he had been transferred to the 2nd Battalion. (The 15 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS ASSOCIATION VOL.9. SEPTEMBER 2002 Old Toughs) and he served on the Western Front home, the country having been torn by Civil War just throughout, being one of only four officers to survive a few years before. Many felt they had no future here. in the whole regiment, although severely wounded in 1915 and gassed twice, losing a lung.

At the famous Christmas truce in 1914, he met a young German who approached him and, indicating a fresh scar on Father’s face said, ‘I did that, I am glad I did not kill you.’ The two men had much in common, although my father was senior by several years. Both kept horses, had the same kind of background and education, were good at sports and athletics. The young man, Sigmund or Siegmund, came from Hanover. He showed Father his rifle, with its telescopic sight. The British Army didn’t have such things. Both were humane men and returned to the business of trying to kill one another with disgust.

Some months later, the ‘Dublins’ approached Mouse Trap (or Shell Trap) Farm. Father went to investigate the buildings before it was light, suspecting that there might be snipers or hidden machine guns. Going round the end of the main building, revolver in hand, he came face to face with Sigmund, also holding his revolver, on exactly the same mission. Both stopped a yard apart. Nothing was said. Then, each turned his back and walked away, frightened no doubt, but fairly sure that he would not be shot.

Father didn’t talk about the war in later years, except A young Standish Smithwick. Royal Dublin Fusiliers. in general terms. But, as an old man, during his last However, my father was delighted when he inherited illness, he relived the incident many times and the gas the family home, Crannagh, near Nenagh in Co attack that followed – the first of the war. Tipperary. The couple moved there after their

marriage in May 1929 and I, their only child, was After the war. born eighteen months later. The place was run down and money was scarce, but Father was a born farmer, In 1918, my father was made second in command of with an instinctive knowledge of livestock. He was a Catterick Camp in Yorkshire with the rank of Lt.Col. noted horseman and high handicap polo player in his He and his first wife lived in Richmond, Yorkshire. day and had loathed city life. The Economic War He was then sent to Constantinople. When the broke many Irish farmers, but he survived – just. I regiment was disbanded in 1922, he was transferred never remember him in really good health, as he was to the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry and sent to full of splinters of metal, resulting from a grenade India. His wife, Dolly, died and was buried at sea on explosion that shattered his rifle in 1915. For years, her way to join him there in 1922. He served with the he suffered from bouts of agonising pain as the D.C.L.I., mainly in India, until he retired in 1928. He splinters moved about in his body. Finally, one of was given a clerical job, which he hated, in the War them pierced his stomach wall and he died of internal Office and married my mother, Marjorie Cooper, a bleeding 10th April 1958, aged eighty. During the six year later. He was awarded the military O.B.E. and weeks illness before his death, he dreamed and raved retired to Ireland. The twenties had been a bad time in delirium about W.W.1. In particular, he relived his for an officer in the British Army to retire to his Irish second meeting with the young soldier he had met 16 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS ASSOCIATION VOL.9. SEPTEMBER 2002 during the Christmas truce of 1914, and the approach the Connaught Rangers. Today the museum holds a to the Frezenberg Ridge, where he was left for dead small but rather limited collection of material related after being gassed. to the Regiment. We have been promised exhibition space to expand the collection and set up a research He and my mother, who died May 29th 1979, are and database in King House for those interested as buried in Monsea graveyard, four miles from Nenagh. well as using the facilities to hold lectures and other He didn’t enjoy his time in the D.C.L.I. His only events. The town of Boyle itself is situated in north request to me when he knew he was dying was to put Roscommon and nestled under the Curlew Mountains ‘Royal Dublin Fusiliers’ in full, on his headstone, and has a number of attractions for the visitor. As which I did. well as King House, there are the marvellous remains A Prayer. of a 12th century abbey and the beautiful Forest Park on the shores of Lough Key. The following is a prayer which my father, Capt. Standish Smithwick, carried with him throughout the For Great War enthusiasts, it may be interesting to war. note that eleven officers and ninety six men born or who resided in the town and surrounding villages of a Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers radius of five miles, perished in World War One. But to be fearless in facing them. Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain When one considers that the town had a population of But for the heart to conquer it. 2,691 in the Census of 1911, this represented a huge Let me not look for allies in life’s battlefield proportion of the town’s population. Only one of But to my own strength. these men has a public memorial that being Capt. Let me not crave in anxious fear to be saved Edward Stafford King Harman, the twenty two year But hope for the patience to win my freedom. old heir to the Rockingham Estate, now the Forest Grant me that I may not be a coward, Park. Capt. King went missing at the Battle of Ypres Feeling your mercy in my success alone: a few days after arriving at the front on November But let me find the grasp of your hand in my failure. the 5th 1914. His name is recorded on the impressive town clock situated on the Crescent, along side that of (Rabindranath Tagore. Trans. from The Bengali.) his mother who died in 1916 having never got over the loss of her eldest son. Another interesting claim to The Connaught Rangers Association fame for Boyle is that it is the birthplace of the founded. Hollywood actress Maureen O’Sullivan born in 1911 in a house in Main Street just outside the gates of Mr Oliver Fallon. King House. Her father a Corkman, Captain Charles Secretary, The Connaught Rangers Association. O’ Sullivan was at the time, adjutant to the 4th Connaught Rangers and he and her mother, a local On the 6th of June last, following a weekend of girl named Ann Marie Fraser met while playing lectures in King House Boyle, Co Roscommon the tennis in the local pleasure grounds. Capt. O’Sullivan Connaught Rangers Association was founded. Like was seriously wounded at the Battle of the Aisne in our sister organisation the RDF Assoc. and RMF September 1914 and his brother in law Lieutenant Assoc. our ideals and aspirations are almost identical Jack Fraser was killed in action trying to pull him to ; to remember and record the history of the Rangers safety. and organise events to bring people together who have a shared interest in the Regiment. For those Of the other men from the town who died in the Great wanting to join our Association application forms War, about half, like Lieutenant Fraser, were may be obtained from : The Secretary, The Connaught Rangers. However there were Munster Connaught Rangers Assoc., c/o King House, Boyle, Fusiliers, Leinsters, Royal Irish Regiment, Royal Irish Co Roscommon. King House Museum situated in the Rifles, Royal Irish Fusiliers, Irish and Coldstream town of Boyle, was once the home of the King family Guards, West Yorkshire Regt, RFA, RAMC, East and later headquarters of the 4th Militia Battalion of Lancs, Hampshire Regt, Duke of Wellingtons,

17 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS ASSOCIATION VOL.9. SEPTEMBER 2002 Manchesters, Lancashire Fusiliers, Royal Lancasters, loved to visit until it became too dangerous. Today KOSB, Cheshires, HLI, Inniskillings, Worcesters, Drumdoe House still stands in private ownership. Royal Hussars, Northumberland Fusiliers, Royal Scots, RASC, one member of the Royal Navy, one We would like to extend a special word of thanks to member of the Canadian Army and a member of the the Committee of the RDFA for their much New Zealand Army. It is interesting to note the appreciated assistance in the setting up of the predominance of North of England Regiments Connaught Rangers Association. reflecting the pattern of high emigration from north Roscommon to the mill towns of Lancashire and Cricket, lovely cricket. West Yorkshire as pointed out by Kevin Myers (Irish Times) in a enjoyable lecture during our inaugural Mr Pat Hogarty. weekend. In addition to the above there were two Member of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers Association. officers and six men from Boyle who died with the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. Pte. John Mc Gowan. No. th nd St. Columba’s College Vs. The 10 Royal Dublin 8638. 2 Dublin Fusiliers. Died of Wounds in th th Fusiliers. On the 28 of June 1916, members of the Dublin received in Belgium, May the 15 1915. 10th Royal Dublin Fusiliers played a cricket match Buried in Grangegorman Military Cemetery, Dublin. th against the boys of St. Columba’s College, Dublin . Pte. Patrick Edmond O’Beirne. No. 19261. 6 Royal The match was played at Rathfarnham. The Dubs Dublin Fusiliers. Aged twenty one. Died of Wounds, th won by ninety six runs. Salonika, Greece, November the 20 , 1916. Pte. John The following score-sheet recorded the scoring. O’Donnell. No. 25274. 10th Royal Dublin Fusiliers. th Killed in action Monday February the 5 1917, the Saint Columbus. Somme, France. Sgt. Thomas Priest. No. 25462. Also C.W. Huggard c. Mount b. Cpl Robinson 4 of the 10th Royal Dublin Fusiliers. Killed in action, th R.N.Stanton b. Lieut. Cox 4 the Somme France, February the 11 1917. Pte. nd th Mr. Bell b. 2 Lieut. Cox 0 Joseph Farrell. No. 27938. 9 Royal Dublin C.H.Deane run out. 16 Fusiliers. Killed in action Passchendaele, Belgium, The Warden b. 2nd Lieut. Cox. 64 August the 16th, 1917. Aged nineteen. Pte. Charles nd Mr. Pontet not out. 16 Rushforth. No. 20967. 2 Royal Dublin Fusiliers. Mr Wood not out. 2 Killed in action, Le Catelet, Aisne, France., October th th H.E.Jones not out 7 the 7 , 1918.7. Capt. William H. Monson M.C. 8 G.G. Symes did not bat. Battalion Dublin Fusiliers. Died of Wounds, La J.G. King did not bat. Neuville No. 21 Casualty Clearing Station, Corbie, R.H. Dowes did not bat Somme, France, September the 7th , 1916. Aged thirty th Extras 6 eight. Capt.. Bernard C. J. Cunningham. 7 Royal Total 119. Dublin Fusiliers. Killed in action Thursday March the st 21 1918 in the German offensive. 10th Royal Dublin Fusiliers. Pte. Malcolmson c. Symes b. King 28 One other item of note is that Lord French, he who Pte. Irvine not out. 86 got sacked in the Autumn of 1915 and later became 2nd Lieut. Cox. l..b.w. b. King 56 Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in May 1918, purchased a Cpl. Robinson not out. 29 country retreat called Drumdoe House in Crossna just Lieut. Wilson. did not bat. outside the town on the shores of Lough Arrow. He C.Q.M.S. Wilson. Ditto frequently stayed there and it was on his return to the Lieut. Mount. Ditto. House by train in December 1919, that an Pte. Glynn. Ditto. assassination attempt was carried out on him as he H. St. G. Mc Kenny. Ditto. left Ashtown Gate Station to return to his residence in S Guilford. Ditto. the Phoenix Park. The French family originated from E. L’E. Davies. Ditto. nearby Frenchpark and it seemed French himself Extras. 16 Total 215. 18 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS ASSOCIATION VOL.9. SEPTEMBER 2002 On the 5th of August 1916, the 10th Dublin left the Memorial: A stain glass window commemorates two Phoenix Park for Pirbright Camp in England. The officers killed in Gallipoli. Somme awaited them in November. A check of the Inscription: “In loving memory of Ernest Lawrence above names on the Dublins cricket team against Julian: 7th Dublin Fusiliers and Robert Hornidge those members of the battalion listed KIA or DOW in Cullimam: 7th Munster Fusiliers who died for their Soldiers Died indicates that none of the above men country at Suvla Bay in August 1915. They were both died while serving with the battalion.. members of the Irish Bar. This window was erected by some of their friends. Non sibi sed patria.” Reference. Lieutenant Ernest Lawrence Julian of “D” Company, The Columban. July 1916. 7th Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers was the Reid Professor of Law at Trinity College, Dublin. Aged The Military Heritage of Ireland Trust. thirty six, he died on board His Majesty’s Hospital Ship Valdivia on the 8th of August 1915 from wounds In the last edition of The Blue Cap, we announced the sustained the previous day. He was buried at sea. formation of the Military Heritage of Ireland Trust. The only surviving son of the late John Julian of The aim is to promote the study and commemoration Drumbane, Birr, King’s County and Margaret Jullian, of Irish men and women who served in military forces No. 28 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin, he was educated on land, sea and in the air, wherever in the world and at Strangeway’s School, Dublin and Charterhouse and for whatever country or cause. It will do this by Trinity College, Dublin. He was called to the Bar in developing projects concerned with military archives 1903. He was gazetted Lieutenant in October 1914. and museums. It is working with the National He is commemorated on the Helles Memorial, Museum to prepare a major exhibition in Collins Gallipoli, Turkey. Barracks which is expected to open in late 2003. (Two people separately contacted The Blue Cap about There are plans to locate the Irish military archives in this memorial. They were Mr Tom Brooks and Mr A. Collins Barracks. This will facilitate the acquisition C. Sutton. Both are members of the RDF of material related to all aspects of the Irish military Association.) heritage and provide a central point for research by the general public and researchers. Church of Ireland, Boyle (Mr Oliver Fallon, Secretary of the Connaught The Trust is planning to provide a Guide to Irish Rangers Association) Military Heritage to enable individuals to locate records, objects, buildings and places. It will be Location: Boyle, Co. Roscommon. provided in a printed version and on the website of A memorial in the church contains the name of the Trust www.irishsoldiers.com. Funding is needed Captain W.H. Monson MC, 8th Bn. RDF. Born the to complete this project. Further information can be 29th of September 1878, he was the son of George found on the above website. Thomas and Kate S. Monson of Grallaghamore, Boyle, Co. Roscommon and Dublin. Went to France th They are not forgotten: on the 20 of December 1915. Died of Wounds at La Memorials to the Royal Dublin Fusiliers Neuville No. 21 Casualty Clearing Station, Corbie, Somme, France, 7th of September 1916. Aged thirty Part 4. eight.

Philip Lecane. The same memorial contains the name of Private Member of The Royal Dublin Fusiliers Association. Joseph Farrell, Reg. No. 27938, 9th Bn. RDF. Killed

in action Passchendaele, Belgium, Thursday the 16th St Ann’s Church of Ireland. of August 1917. Aged nineteen.

Location: Dawson Street, Dublin.

19 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS ASSOCIATION VOL.9. SEPTEMBER 2002 Church of Ireland, Ardcarne Memorial: Celtic cross. The memorial (Mr Oliver Fallon, Secretary of the Connaught commemorates the First World War dead from Rangers Association) “Cahir and the surrounding district.” Seventy-six men, from twenty-eight military formations are listed Location: Ardcarne, Boyle, Co. Roscommon. on the memorial. Panel four of the memorial lists four A memorial in the church contains the name of R.D.F. men: R.S. Boles, M. O’Donoghue, P. Private Charles Rushforth, Reg. No. 3028, 2nd Bn. Quigley, F. Smith. Research into the seventy-six men RDF. Killed in action, France, the 7th of October on the monument would give an interesting insight in 1918. the effects of the First World War on part of county Tipperary. St. Peter’s Church of Ireland (Patrick Hogarty, Member of the Royal Dublin St James Church of Ireland Fusiliers Association) (Mr A.C. Sutton, Member of the RDF Assoc.)

Location: Bandon, Co. Cork Location: Moy, Co. Tyrone. Memorial inscription “To the gory of God and in A roll of honour contains the name of Lieutenant A. honoured memory of men belonging to this parish Rose-Cleland RDF. The only child of Mr H.S. Rose- who gave their lives in the service of King and Cleland, Redford House, Moy, he was educated at Country during the Great War 1914-1919. ‘Their Dungannon Royal School and St. Columba’s College name liveth for evermore.’ Rathfarnham, Dublin. At the outbreak of war he was employed by McLaughlin and Harvey Ltd, Belfast. Among the seventeen names on the memorial are: He enlisted in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and was Second Lieutenant William Andrews (32), 1st Bn. gazetted Second Lieutenant in February 1915. He RDF. Killed in action on the 26th of April 1915 at was killed in action in France on the 1st of July 1916 Gallipoli. Son of the late William Andrews; husband at the Battle of the Somme. of Esther Mary Andrews, 11 Park Rd., Polsloe Park, Exeter. Buried in ‘V’ Beach Cemetery: No. F. 13, Fratton Bridge British Legion Club Turkey. (Mr Tom Brooks, Member of RDF Association) Second Lieutenant Robert Henry Burns (25), 8th Bn. RDF. Killed in action on the 1st of November 1918, Location: Fratton Bridge British Legion Club, near Epehy. Son of Robert Henry and Elizabeth Portsmouth, Hampshire. Burns, Monarone, Bandon, Co. Cork. Name on the Memorial: Plaque and Portrait. Special Memorial, Preseau Communal Cemetery The memorial is to a Dub who survived the Great Extension, France. War and lived until 1966. Acting Company Sergeant- Second Lieutenant Albert Ernest Carrette (21), 9th Bn. Major James Ockenden, V.C. M.M. 1st Bn. RDF was RDF. Killed in action on the 27th of April 1916 in the born on the 10th of December 1890 at No. 56 Albert gas attach at Hulluch. Son of Edward William and Street, Landport, Portsmouth, Hampshire. He was Jane Carrette, Bandon, Co. Cork. Buried Vermelles awarded the Victoria Cross for gallantry on the 4th of British Cemetery: No. 11.F.29. October 1917 near Langemarck, Belgium. He died Lieutenant Cecil Mahon Tweedy (24), 3rd and 1st Bns. on the 29th of August 1966, aged seventy five years, RDF. Killed in action on the 28th of February 1917. at No. 5 Yorke Street, Southsea, Hampshire. He was Son of Isabel Tweedy, 45 Prior Park Rd., Bath and cremated and his ashes were buried at North Border the late Chief Inspector Thomas Tweedy, R.I.C. Post, Plot 20, Porchester Crematorium. Buried Sailly-Saillisel British Cemetery-Somme: No. 11.D.8, France. St. Mary’s Hospital, Phoenix Park, Dublin.(previously the Royal Hibernian Military Public War Memorial, Cahir School) (Mr James Nolan, Member of the RDF Association) (Mr Tim Foster, Member of RDF Association)

Location: Opposite Cahir Castle, Co. Tipperary. Location: St. Mary’s Hospital, Phoenix Park, Dublin.

20 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS ASSOCIATION VOL.9. SEPTEMBER 2002 Memorial: Obelisk. Name. Regt. Bn. Died. Grave Among those commemorated on the memorial is No. No. Corporal H.J. Leetch Reg. No. 7953, RDF who was Pte..J Reardon 2791 1st 25-4-1883 444 killed in action on the 27th of August 1914. He Pte. J Whelan 733 1st 16-3-1885 466 nd attended the Royal Hibernian Military School from Pte.J Timmins 2916 2 24-11-1885 476 Pte..M Whelan 2638 2nd 7-6-1890 523 the 24th of August 1899 to the 10th of September Sgt. M Boshell 2412 1st 31-7-1890 527 1902. Pte. M Chambers 3637 2nd 3-12-1892 549 Pte. J Hoey 2897 1st 28-2-1900 638 Cemetery at Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley Pte. Mc Donnell 3492 1 20-10-1900 652 (Mr Chris Coombes, Member of RDF Association) Pte. P Moran 4503 4th 16-6-1902 689 Pte. P Costello 6374 1 3-4-1906 738 nd Location:The Royal Victoria Country Park, near Pte.J Farrell 9722 2 5-4-1912 775 Southampton. Table 1. Graves of RDF at Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley. Netley Hospital was built following the Crimean War. The foundation stone was laid by Queen Victoria on the 19th of May 1856 and the hospital Church of Ireland, Rathfarnham was completed in 1863. Queen Victoria visited the (Mr Maurice Bryan, Member RDF Association) hospital several times and awarded Victoria Crosses Memorial to Second Lieutenant Harold Mansfield, to three of the patients. In his first Sherlock Holmes th th story, “A Study in Scarlet,” Arthur Conan Doyle says 10 Bn. RDF. Killed in action 13 of November that Dr John Watson was a student at the hospital. 1916, aged thirty six. Married to Helen Mansfield, 11 The hospital treated casualties from the Boer War. In Grosvenor Square, Rathmines, Dublin. Buried 1914 a Red Cross hutted hospital with 1,000 beds was Knightsbridge Cemetery Mesnil, Martinsart, France. His wife was pregnant when he was killed. See The built at the rear of the main hospital. About 50,000 th patients, including wounded German prisoners, Blue Cap Vol. 7 March 2000 for article on the 10 passed through the hospital during the First World Dublins. War. (20,000 main hospital. 30,000 hutted hospital). The hospital also saw extensive use during the Thank you to those members who have taken the time Second World War. Afterwards the main hospital and trouble to record and send in memorial details. fell into disuse. In 1966 it was demolished except for To assist the RDF Association in building up a the Royal Chapel. In 1980, the site became the comprehensive database of war memorials, it would Royal Victoria Country Park, the former chapel be helpful if contributors would record as much detail housing a heritage centre. The cemetery has about on memorials as possible including the exact location 3,500 graves, mostly military but also wives and of the memorial within the church / building, an exact children of the hospital staff. description of the memorial (e.g. marble tablet / wooden cross), any inscriptions on the memorial, the The following RDF men are buried in number of names that are on the memorial, etc. Items Commonwealth War Graves in the cemetery: L/Cpl. for this series should be sent to: A. Thompson Reg. No. 11707. 17th of June 1915, aged nineteen. Pte. James Hickey Reg. No. 11499, Mr. Philip Lecane, 2nd Bn. 16th of July 1915. Aged twenty. Pte. T. The Royal Dublin Fusiliers Association, O’Keefe, Reg. No. 7628, 2nd Bn. 8th of July 1916. C/o Dublin Civic Museum, Aged forty. Pte. W. Swift Reg. No. 21866. 26th of South William Street, August 1916. Dublin 2. Ireland.

Table 1. lists earlier RDF graves at the Netley Website: www.greatwar.ie cemetery. E Mail address: [email protected]

21 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS ASSOCIATION VOL.9. SEPTEMBER 2002 The Incomparable 29th Division. For many years the Stretton-on-Dunsmore Parish Council were anxious about the deteriorating Mr Pat Hogarty. condition of the memorial. Thanks to a splendid Member of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers Association. donation of £stg. 14,000 from the Ready Mix Concrete Aggregates, the Council was able to proceed On the 12th of March 1915, the 29th Infantry Division in July 2001 with a major programme of restoration. Work was completed and a rededication ceremony of the British Army assembled at Dunchurch in rd th Warwickshire . Prior to their departure to Gallipoli, took place on September the 23 , 2001. On the 10 HM King George V, reviewed his troops outside the of March 2002, following a service of remembrance, village. Some 18,000 men and 6,000 horses paraded Major Hugh Fenner of the Gallipoli Association in front of the King. The Division was made up of kindly laid a wreath at the foot of the memorial on three infantry brigades, the 86th,87th and 88th. Irish behalf of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers Association. Regiments such as The Royal Dublin and Royal Present also at the ceremony was Mr Bill Shields, a th local Borough Councillor whose father served with Munster Fusiliers were part of the 86 Brigade. The st Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers were part of the 87th the 1 Dublins at Gallipoli. Brigade. There were no Irish regiments in the 88th Brigade. The Division fought in Gallipoli in 1915 Reference. and on the Western Front in France and Belgium for the remaining years of the war. The soldiers that The Gallipolian Journal of the Gallipoli Association. made up the Division were drawn from the four home No 97. Winter 2001-2002.,N0. 96. Autumn 2001 and countries ,i.e. England , Wales, Scotland and Ireland. No. 92 Spring 2000. th Following their term in Gallipoli, the Division earned Gillon. Capt. Stair. The Story of the 29 Division. the name as being the ‘ Incomparable 29th.’ On the Thomas Nelson and Sons. London.

13th of December 1918, the Division marched across the Rhine on their way to Cologne. The salute was Poetry. taken by General Plumer of Messines at the foot of the Kaiser’s statue on the Hohenzolleren Bridge. Storming of the Dardanelles. Total casualties suffered by the 29th throughout the war amounted to 94,000. Gallipoli alone accounted Private Thomas Doran, 1st Bn. Royal Dublin for 34,000.They won twenty-seven Victoria Crosses. Fusiliers Details on these Victoria Cross winners may be obtained from the RDF Assoc. We talk of Irish regiments, no wonder why we do, The Dublins and the Munsters, you’ve heard about Approximately one kilometre from the village of those two; Dunchurch, east along the A45, there is a memorial to You can see by many papers how Irish blood it tells the 29th Division near the village of Stretton-on- The way those famous regiments fought at the Dunsmore. The memorial is situated in the centre of Dardanelles. a large roundabout on the A45 about eight kilometres east of Coventry, grid reference SP415733. Money On the 25th of April, when we did make a start, for the memorial was raised by public subscription We were singing Tipperary, a song that reached our following a local wish to commemorate the King’s hearts; review and in memory of the men who served in the The ships were packed with khaki lads, such spirits Division. The memorial was designed by Bridgman they did show, and Sons of Lichfield and erected in late 1920 at a To the cry Are we downhearted? We quickly cost of £stg 646. Before an estimated crowd of over answered No. 7,000, the stone memorial standing 12..3 meters high, was unveiled by the Lord Lieutenant of We got then into our small boats, this way we were to Warwickshire, Lord Craven and handed over to the land, Chairman of the Warwickshire County Council, Lord Then every Tommy could be seen with a Woodbine in Algernon Percy, on Tuesday the 24th of May 1921. his hand, 22 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS ASSOCIATION VOL.9. SEPTEMBER 2002 There were boys from Tipperary, from Cork and an Irish Brigade from Irish prisoners of war in County Clare, German prison camps. A paper cutting from the And the boys from County Dublin and the Short Daily Mail with a poem titled The Loyal Irish written Grass, that’s Kildare. by Touchstone, was found among the papers of Private Christopher Mc Donald, who was a prisoner The Turks they were prepared for us, as one and all at Limburg. No date was on the paper cutting The could tell, poem was a tribute to the Irish prisoners in the camp For about one thousand yards from land we were met at Limburg, who were offered £10 apiece by Sir with shot and shell; Roger Casement if they would fight for Germany. There were bodies floating through the sea and They refused practically to a man, and were treated hundreds on the sand, with such severity that seventy of their number died. But the Turks they suffered terribly when we fought Chris Mc Donald survived the war. Born in Holles them on the land. Street, Dublin, he was a gardener before he enlisted as a young man of seventeen. His two brothers also The wounded moaning mercy, it was an awful sight; enlisted. They were Daniel, who was an RSM with Those who got badly wounded were wishing for the the Dubs and Peter. After the war Christopher night, returned to Dublin. He could not get work so he And when night came our stretcher boys had lots of emigrated to Scotland where he got a job on the work to start, railways. He died in 1972. Thanks to Christopher’s Collecting bodies, legs and arms, the sight near broke daughter, Mrs. Grace Campbell from Aviemore, their heart. Inverness-shire in Scotland for the material supplied to The Blue Cap about her father. The Turks were then retreating retreating their numbers lost were large, We were worn and weary and the hunger had a hold Our officers say Dublins! We’ll have a bayonet of us, charge. Rotting in a prison camp as the days went dragging The charge was done, the Turks they run, our lads in by: ringing cheers, Ah! The cruel time we had, the misery and cold of us! I can’t forget those Irish boys-the Dublin Fusiliers. But still we met our gaolers with our heads held high.

Before I go, I tell you, be proud and give three He came, the dirty traitor, with his German gold to cheers, buy us all- For those brave fighting Irishmen-the Dublin Buy the souls of Irishmen whose honour knew no Fusiliers. stain: Offered us poor, starving men our liberty to try us Private Thomas Doran from The Harbour, Naas, Co. all; Kildare was wounded at ‘V’ Beach, Gallipoli. He God! We so have answered him he will not come was shipped to a hospital in Exeter, where he wrote again. Storming of the Dardanelles. James Durney Then they cut our rations down who dared to answer published the poem in his book Far from the Short nay to them, Grass: The Story of Kildare Men in Two World Wars Bidding hunger speak where late the traitor’s voice (Naas, Co. Kildare) 1999, ISBN 0 9530521 2 5. The was heard. book is a well researched and well written account of Aye, and there were those of us too proud to whine the men from one Irish county who served in both and pray to them, world wars. Turned their faces to the wall and died without a The Loyal Irish word. You who keep within your hearts the records bright In 1914 Sir Roger Casement went to Germany in an and glorious, attempt to get German backing for a planned rising in Telling how the Irish fell on many stricken field, Ireland. As part of his efforts, he attempted to raise Keep you in remembrance those eternally victorious,

23 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS ASSOCIATION VOL.9. SEPTEMBER 2002 Lads who fought a bitter fight, and knew not how to and would be pleased to plant it in the local park yield. which is Woodlands Park.

On the 11th of January 2001, a cold and dry winter’s day, the planting ceremony was performed by the Lord Mayor, Councillor Mrs Peggy Mersh. The party attending included, Councillors Brook, Parker and Mersh. Mr Brian Tourle of the Heritage and History Department; Ms Caroline Halfpenny; Mr Tony Larkin of the Gravesend Historical Society and member of the RDF Assoc.; Mrs Marion Hughes whose uncle, Private George Amos, was killed in the fighting at Mouse Trap Farm on the 24th of May 1915.

The Ceremony opened with the reading of the ‘De Profundis’, followed by the Lord’s Prayer. After the Lord’s Prayer, Councillor A. Marsh laid a bouquet of flowers with a card bearing the inscription : ‘Remembered. The Royal Dublin Fusiliers. 1911 – 1914. God Bless.’ Councillor A. Marsh gave a short speech and Councillor Brook agreed with the proposal that a plaque be made and placed at the tree. The ceremony then concluded. The tree is located in the corner of the park nearest the Wrotham Road, close to the area which was previously fenced off.

Under the Colours. POW Identification Card of Private Christopher Mc Donald. 2nd Royal Dublin Fusiliers. Capt. (retd) Seamus Greene. A tree grows in Gravesend. Member of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers Association.

Mr Pat Hogarty. In a solemn and historically poignant ceremony in St. th Member of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers Association. George's Hall, Windsor Castle, on the 12 of June 1922, King George V received the Colours of five About two years ago I read one of the English Southern Irish Infantry Regiments, which were newspapers that a number of Councils in England disbanded on that fateful day. The Colours laid up were planting trees in their local parks to were those of the following Regiments: commemorate the regiments now disbanded who had been stationed in or near the towns during the two The Royal Irish Regiment World Wars. The Connaught Rangers. From 1911 to 1914, the 2nd Battalion of the Royal The Prince of Wales's Leinster Regiment (Royal Dublin Fusiliers were stationed at Milton Barracks in Canadians) Gravesend. The Royal Munster Fusiliers They were very popular and well received in the The Royal Dublin Fusiliers. town. I wrote to the Council at Gravesend and enquired if they could plant a tree to remember the The South Irish Horse were also disbanded, but as men of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. The response I they had no Colour, they presented a Regimental received was very positive. I received a reply from Engraving to the King. Ms Caroline Halfpenny, Technical Officer, Leisure Services. She informed me that they had an oak tree 24 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS ASSOCIATION VOL.9. SEPTEMBER 2002 In accepting the Colours, the King made the Regimental Headquarters Staffs of the Irish Guards, following promise: ‘ I pledge my word that within Royal Irish Regiment, North Irish Horse and London these ancient and historic walls your Colours will be Irish Rifles. The Irish Defence Forces were treasured, honoured and protected as hallowed represented by senior officers including the Chief of memorials of the glorious deeds of brave and loyal Staff, Lieut.-General Colm Mangan. regiments.’ From the accompanying picture, it is clearly evident that the Colours have been so During the service of prayers, our chairman was treasured, honoured and protected. invited to read from the Gospel of St John 15. 9-17 and prayers were offered for all who served under the Colours, particularly those who gave their lives to make the world a better place for those whom they loved as well as those who lived after them.

The Irish Ambassador , Mr Dáithi Ó Ceallaigh, gave the closing address, in which he acknowledged that Irishmen who served in the British Army during the Great War had been shamefully forgotten during the early years of the new Irish State. He recalled the recent moves to redress this, including the restoration of the National War Memorial Gardens at Islandbridge, the Irish government’s support for the Island of Ireland Peace Park in Flanders and the State Reception for the RDFA in Dublin Castle last April.

On Sunday the 16th of June, twenty members of the RDF Assoc. took part in the annual parade to the Cenotaph organised by the Combined Irish Regiments Old Comrades Association. Along with standards from other Irish regiments and the Organisation of National Ex-Service men, Capt. (Retd) Seamus Green paraded the RDF Assoc. standard. The parade was led by the pipes and drums of the Royal Irish Regiment and London Irish Rifles. The following officers took the salute as parade marched passed near the Cenotaph. Major-General (Retd) Paddy Nowlan former Quartermaster General, Irish Defence Forces; Pictured in Windsor Castle beneath the Colours of the 1st and 2nd Major General Arthur Denaro OBE (late Queen’s Battalions of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers are: from left Comdt Royal Irish Hussars) now GOC 5th Div; Major (Retd) Joe Gallagher, Capt (Retd) Séamus Greene, Maj.-Gen General (Retd) David the O’Morchoe (late Royal (Retd) David The Ó Morchoe, Mr Nick Broughall, RDFA Committee member, RDFA Chairman Mr Tom Burke and Irish Fusiliers and Royal Irish Rangers) Colonel Major Jim McLeod, Chairman of the Combined Irish Regiments Stewart Douglas OBE, Regimental Colonel, The O.C.A. and Project Officer for the Commemoration Ceremony Royal Irish Regiment. Following the march past, to mark the eightieth anniversary of the laying up of the Colours General Nowlan and General Denaro laid wreaths at of the disbanded Irish Regiments of the British Army. the Cenotaph. At the same parade in June 2001,

General Nowlan’s former colleague in the Irish This year’s ceremony to commemorate the 80th Defences Forces, Lieut.-General Gerry Mc Mahon anniversary of the Laying-Up of the Colours of the also laid a wreath at the Cenotaph. We would like to Disbanded Irish Regiments was held in St. George’s extend our sincere thanks to Major Jim McLeod, Hall, Windsor Castle, on the 12th of June 2002. The Capts (retd) Jim Graham, Jamie Mac Neish and the ceremony was attended by representatives of the committee of the Combined Irish Regiments OCA in various Regimental Associations and by the 25 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS ASSOCIATION VOL.9. SEPTEMBER 2002 treating the committee and members of the RDF exhibition to the Dubs on the Somme at the Musee Assoc. with kindness and hospitality during their stay Regional d’Ethnologie in Bethune, France. in London. In November, our good friend Dr Timothy Bowman, Quis Seperabit. returned to speak on ‘Carson’s Army or Kitchener’s men: The Ulster Volunteer Force and the formation Highlights of the past year of the 36th (Ulster) Division’. Later in that month, since the last issue. over ninety members and friends attended our Annual Dinner in the Masonic Hall, Dublin. The Guest of Honour was Major-General Gerry McMahon, ex- Mr Sean Connolly. Chief-of-Staff of the Irish Army. Secretary. The Royal Dublin Fusiliers Association.

In December, Professor John Horne gave us an It is not possible for every member to attend every insight into the impact of the Great War on civilians event organised by the association. The following is a particularly in Belgium when his subject was brief summary of what happened since the last edition ‘German Atrocities in 1914: fact, fantasy or of The Blue Cap. Vol. 8 in June 2001. It will revive fabrication?’ memories for some and may prompt ideas for others.

In March 2002, we organised a lecture by the well- In August 2001, a small group went to Gallipoli to known author Mr Martin Middlebrook. He spoke for investigate the feasibility of an RDF Association tour over two hours on the Battle of the Somme and his to the battlefields that have such significance for own research which led to his seminal book The First Ireland. While there, wreaths were laid at the Helles Day on the Somme. He surprised many by saying that Memorial and at other locations associated with Irish the German Offensive of 1918 was more interesting soldiers. Military honours were rendered by the and significant than the Somme of 1916. As he has Turkish Army. Despite the success of the retired from the lecture circuit, we are grateful to our reconnoitre, the regrettable conclusion was that a full member Mr Jimmy Taylor who persuaded Martin to scale visit would be too difficult and expensive to make his first visit to Dublin. The cost was defrayed organise. by the contributions of the attendees.

In September, we had the good fortune to have Judge In April, a group of twenty two members and friends Anthony Babbington deliver a spell-binding lecture of the RDF Assoc. visited the Regimental museum of on the Connaught Rangers Mutiny. He is an the Royal Irish Fusiliers and the Cathedral in Armagh. acknowledged expert on this subject and this was Many thanks to the Curator, Ms Amanda Moreno and clear in his generous replies to the questions from the her colleagues for their kindness and hospitality. We audience. In October, Mr Ian Passingham, who has installed photographic exhibition about the Gallipoli written an excellent book on the subject, spoke on campaign in the ILAC Central Library during the The Battle of Messines, June 1917. This successful month of May. In June, a group of 20 attended the attack is of particular interest to us because of the commemoration ceremony of the Combined Irish involvement of the 16th (Irish) and 36th (Ulster) Regiments Association at the Cenotaph in London. In Divisions and the location of the Irish Round Tower the same month, the Association participated in the at Mesen (Messines) . Note. Tom Burke is currently formal ceremony in Windsor Castle to mark the 80th working on a book which tells the story of the Irish anniversary of the laying up of the Regimental Regiments who re-took the village of Wijtschate colours. We also wrote to Mr. Alex Maskey, the Sinn (Whitesheet) in the same battle. Fein Lord Mayor of Belfast, to congratulate him on

his decision to lay a wreath at the Belfast memorial The RDF Assoc. have donated a script / photograph on the anniversary of the Battle of the Somme. In exhibition in the Museum at Mesen. The exhibition September 2002, Mr Maskey, along with the Lord presents some stories and photographs of Irish men Mayor of Dublin, Mr Dermot Lacey also laid a wreath who took Wijtschate in June 1917. During the month at the Ginchy Cross in Guillemont. of June 2002, the Assoc. also placed a similar 26 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS ASSOCIATION VOL.9. SEPTEMBER 2002 members participated in the Gallipoli remembrance ceremony in St Annes, Dawson Street, Dublin and in the National Day of Commemoration at the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, in July.

The project to install a commemorative stained glass window in the Garrison Chapel, Cathal Brugha Barracks is well under way and members will be notified of the dedication ceremony. Thanks to our members for their generosity in contributing towards the cost of this important memorial. Thanks must also go Rev. Fr. Eoin Thyne CF at Cathal Brugha Barracks and to Capt. (Retd) Seamus Greene, REF Assoc. who

acts as project manager. Members and friends of the RDF Assoc. pictured at the War Memorial in Armagh City on the 13th of April 2002. Our three lectures for this year are. 28th September. Neill’s Blue Caps and the relief of Lucknow: The In early September, our Chairman Tom Burke led Royal Madras Fusiliers in the Indian Mutiny 1857-9. another successful tour of forty four members to By Dr. David Murphy of Trinity College Dublin. Flanders. See article written by Mrs Marjorie Quarton. Later in the month, Dr David Murphy gave a 12th of October. How are things in Baghdad? The lecture on Neill’s Blue Caps and the Relief of effects of the Great War on an Irish town (Drogheda, Lucknow: The Madras Fusiliers in the Indian Mutiny Co. Louth) By Mr Sean Collins. B.A., M.A. 1857-9’. Once again, there was a capacity audience in Drogheda Historical Society. the Dublin Civic Museum. We continue to appreciate the generosity of Dublin City Council in making this 9th of November. Learning together. Some aspects of facility available to us. the Royal Dublin Fusiliers experience on the Western Front 1916-1918. By Prof. Peter Simkins. Ex- Imperial War Museum, London.

We continue to deal with regular requests for information and guidance from home and abroad. Over 700 queries were dealt with in the last year.

Books Notice.

Jack O’Connell from Schull Books in Ballydehob, Co. Cork has written to The Dubs Assoc. informing us of a limited special offer on the sale of Neill’s Blue Caps, the history of the 1st Battalion and Crown and Company, the history of the 2nd Battalion.

Contact Jack or Barbara at Schull Books, Ballydehob, At the lecture in the Dublin Civic Museum on the 23rd of March Co. Cork. Telephone and fax : From ROI; 028 37317 2002. Left to right. Mr Jimmy Taylor. Mr Martin Middlebrook or outside ROI; 00353 28 37317. and Mr Larry Gittens Our CD, Association tie, blazer badge and lapel We participated in the formal remembrance badge are still available from the association through ceremonies at City Quay Church, The National War the Dublin Civic Museum. Memorial, Islandbridge in Dublin and St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin in November. In April 2002,

27 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS ASSOCIATION VOL.9. SEPTEMBER 2002 Congratulations to historian and RDF Assoc. An appreciation. member Dr. David Murphy on the publication of his book Ireland and the Crimean War. (Four Courts Ronald (Ronnie) Jones Marino (1923-2002) Press, ISBN 1-85182-639-4). This excellently Mr. Joe Gallagher. researched and well written book is the first to be written on Ireland’s forgotten involvement in the Member of The Royal Dublin Fusiliers Association. Crimean War. On Saturday the 23rd of March 2002, a last farewell Congratulations also must go to another member of was made by a large number of relatives and friends the RDF Assoc., Mr James Taylor, on the publication st to a gentleman of many parts, but above all a of his book titled. The 1 Royal Irish Rifles in the gentleman. As a young boy Ronnie won a Great War. Also published by Four Courts Press. scholarship to the prestigious choir school of St.

nd Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin. And it was as a chorister Mr Pat Hogarty’s book on the 2 Battalion of the he took part in the coronation of the late King George Royal Dublin Fusiliers, titled, The Old Toughs, is VI. He subsequently became very well known in available from Paddy through the RDF Assoc., church and academic musical circles throughout Dublin Civic Museum, 58 South William Street, Ireland. He was assistant organist to St. Patrick’s Dublin 2. Cathedral at the time of his death. His interests were

th in contrast to his music, mainly of a military nature. On the 10 of October 1918 The RMS Leinster was He was a keen collector of militaria, a model soldier sunk by a German U-boat off Kingstown (Dun enthusiast and an amateur military historian. He was Laoghaire), Dublin. The tragic sinking of this ship a member of the Royal British Legion, the Royal Air and the loss of 501 lives was and still is, the worst Force Association, the Military History Society of maritime disaster to take place in the Irish sea. The Ireland and more recently a member of the sinking of the Leinster and the stories behind the reconstituted Royal Dublin Fusiliers Association: to people who went down with the ship is the subject of all of these he brought generosity of spirit, an a book by Mr. Philip Lecane awaiting publication. unfailing interest and above all his friendship and irrepressible good humour. To his widow Ann and In Memoriam family we extend our sincere sympathy on their loss. Ronnie you will be missed. RDFA member Joseph Colfer died in Ontario, Canada at the end of October 2001. His father was a Ar dheis De go raibh a nAnamacha Dub and also served in the Irish army. (May their soul be on God’s right hand side)

RDFA member John O’Sullivan died 9th of Spectamur Agendo. September 2001.

RDFA member Michael Reynolds passed away on the 28th of January 2002 on his 80th birthday. His father was a Dub. Our condolences to his daughter Rosemary Higgins and other relatives.

Mrs Marie Dandy (nee Burke), sister of RDFA’s chairman Tom Burke, died on Wednesday the 4th of September 2002 after a lengthy illness. Our condolences to Tom, Marie’s husband Mick and their family, Michael, Paul, Louise and Allison.

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